The Russian nuclear submarine Krasnoyarsk was commissioned on December 11 in Severodvinsk in the presence of Vladimir Putin (illustrative image). KIRILL IODAS / AFP
Little information is available about this Royal Navy naval operation, which took place six months ago near Cork Harbor in Ireland.
As was the case during the Cold War, Russian submarines are increasingly venturing near NATO shores for intelligence purposes or simply to test the responsiveness of NATO member states' naval forces. Atlantic Alliance. In this way, the British Navy “hunted down” a Russian submarine off Cork Harbor, the home port of the small Irish navy, report the Irish Examiner and the Chron.
Few details have been revealed about this incident, which occurred six months ago. The Royal Navy used an anti-submarine frigate and a helicopter to “hunt” the Russian submarine, which was accompanied by a Russian-registered “civilian” ship whose job was to ensure its “surface surveillance”. », understands The Irish Examiner. “Just before dark, the helicopter flew down and dropped the sonar into the water. “He flew over the area for a while before leaving the scene,” a military source told the Irish daily.
A very modest Irish fleet
The two Russian ships did not violate international law because they did not exceed the 12 nautical mile (about 22 kilometers) limit of territorial waters. But “the Russians recognize that the UK is vulnerable on its western flank because the Irish Navy does not have sonar capabilities on the two ships still operational and therefore cannot detect what is happening underwater,” reports the Irish Examiner.
The Irish Naval Service, the very modest Irish navy, has only two Samuel Beckett-class patrol boats, which have no anti-submarine warfare capabilities. This lack of capacity is new, as until July 2022 the naval service had in its inventory three old Eithne-class patrol boats, which entered service in the early 1980s and were equipped with both sonar and a helicopter. “A project to strengthen 'underwater awareness capabilities' is currently underway,” the Irish Ministry of Defense responded, without giving further details.
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For its part, Russia, whose submarine force rapidly declined after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, had reduced its patrols for twenty years but has regained strength over the past decade. Stronger underwater activity than in the Atlantic, made possible by the commissioning of new ships or the renovation of old buildings.
In addition to eleven nuclear submarines with ballistic missiles (including seven new Borei), which serve as a nuclear deterrent, the Russian fleet deploys about fifteen nuclear submarines (including four new Yasen), three nuclear submarines for ” Espionage missions” (including the new Belgorod). ) and about fifteen diesel-electric attack submarines (including 11 new Kilo-M, one of which was most likely destroyed in the Black Sea during the war in Ukraine). An example of this increase in power: Vladimir Putin witnessed the commissioning of two new nuclear submarines this week. Ten more are currently under construction, as well as five more with conventional drives.
“Strange Routes”
The return of Russian submarine patrols has worried the militaries of NATO member states for several years. “In recent months,” the Royal Navy has “detected Russian submarines in the North Atlantic, the Irish Sea and the North Sea.” They took bizarre paths they wouldn’t normally take,” announced Ben Wallace, the British defense secretary. on April 18, 2023, citing the American magazine Politico.
“We have seen an increase in military activity around Norway in the far north, in the North Atlantic. We have seen that Russian submarines operate differently than they did a decade ago. They are acting more unpredictably and some of their maneuvers appear more aggressive,” Royal Norwegian Navy chief Rear Admiral Rune Andersen said in a report by NBC News.
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